


Salazar

by Kasena



Series: Finding What Was Lost [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Basilisks, Curse Breaking, Drarropoly: A Drarry Game/Fest, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Parselmouth Harry Potter, Parseltongue Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27749365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasena/pseuds/Kasena
Summary: Harry and Draco are assigned to detention together during their eighth year. One of their tasks is to confirm the state of the Chamber of Secrets, and whether or not anything non-lethal could be done with it. What they find within is much more interesting.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: Finding What Was Lost [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025454
Comments: 6
Kudos: 176
Collections: Drarropoly '20: Founders Edition





	Salazar

**Author's Note:**

> Harry and Draco are working together. To complete their task, Harry must speak in Parseltongue. Choose either ~~Auror Partners~~ \- OR - **Hogwarts Eighth Year.**
> 
>  **N.E.W.T. Level:** _\+ Include conversations/dialogue between Harry and the snake(s). + Write part of the story from the POV of a snake._ Minimum: 3011 words. Maximum: 4401 words
> 
> Art at the bottom!

Harry grumbled quietly to himself. Totally ridiculous. How was it he was an Eighth Year -  _ eighteen years old! _ \- And he was still getting detention because of Malfoy. “I hate you,” Malfoy huffed next to him as they stood in front of the door.

“Feeling’s mutual,” Harry told him, more as a force of habit and annoyance than anything. Myrtle’s bathroom. They had to clean Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, and McGonagall wanted them to venture down into the Chamber and report back to her on what kind of state it was in. Wasn’t that something a teacher should have been doing? Just because they were adults shouldn’t have meant that they had to do the jobs of adults!

“She assigned us the  _ girl’s _ bathroom.” Malfoy sounded about as happy as he felt about the situation. He finally seemed to sigh. “At least we’ll be in good company, I suppose.”

Harry looked at him, furrowing his brow, more than a little bewildered. He… definitely didn’t expect for Malfoy to think of Myrtle as ‘good company.’ “You know that we have to clean by hand. The muggle way.”

“Yes, Potter, thank you, I have recognized that much, I haven’t gone deaf.” Jesus, He was a whole arse. “I didn’t make a singular comment about that, did I? I said that we would be in good company, which still holds true, even with the terrible task at hand.”

Harry looked back at the door before finally pushing it open and looking around. The Second War hadn’t taken its toll on the bathroom, but probably decades of not being touched certainly had. He doubted Filch ever stepped inside to clean it. He startled backwards when Myrtle appeared in front of them. “Hello, Harry. Hello, Draco.”

“Hello, Myrtle,” Malfoy told her, actually sounding pleasant for once in his life. “How did the summer treat you?”

“Wonderfully as always, summers mean there’s no one around to torment Moaning Myrtle.” Jeez… She… She had been a fourth year. They were already four years older than her.

“Oh, do we torment you so, then?” Malfoy looked smug, crossing his arms at her.

Myrtle frowned, and it was definitely something resembling more of a pout. “Well, you’re certainly not just  _ anyone, _ Draco. You know that.”

“I should hope so, at least.” He sighed and looked to where Harry had pulled in the cleaning supplies. “I’m afraid we’re not here for a friendly chat, Myrtle.”

“Oo, you’ve got detention, have you? Naughty boys. What was it you did?”

Harry rolled his eyes. The two of them were terrible, but he didn’t realize how much worse they were  _ together. _ “Nothing too terrible. At least, I didn’t do anything. I just made a few comments that apparently ruffled some feathers, and Potter didn’t take kindly. So, like the brute he was, he responded by flashing his wand.”

He listened to Myrtle giggle, but he was at least a little surprised when Malfoy picked up a rag and turned on one of the sinks, pouring soap into the water. “Your comments always seem to ‘ruffle some feather.’”

“Mm, indeed. I don’t quite understand it.” Didn’t understand it Harry’s arse.

He supposed he should have been less surprised. Malfoy was… absurdly terrible at cleaning. Harry had to correct him multiple times on multiple different things. From using the rough side of the sponge on the mirrors, to how to mop and sweep. With Myrtle there, though… It was odd. It was almost like she was a sort of mediator between the two of them, and they got through most of the work fairly quickly. He wondered if she knew she’d have that effect, and that was why she’d stuck around. He supposed there was no true way to know, but he had to wonder after it all the same.

Finally, when he thought that it was clean enough, he nodded, looking around. “Right then. I think that’s that part done.”

Myrtle  _ squealed, _ clapping her hands together as she looked around. “I haven’t seen it this clean in  _ ages. _ Would you look at how the toilets sparkle? Oh, I hope they keep it this clean. I’ll even let some of the other girls come in again.” That was…

“That’d be incredibly kind and generous of you,” Draco told her in a tone that sounded almost  _ genuine. _ “I think the Headmistress would appreciate that.”

“I think she would, too.” Myrtle looked to Harry. “You said that part. There’s more to your detention? What else is there?”

Harry sighed, scratching at his chin a bit. “McGonagall wanted us to go down to the Chamber and check it out, see if there’s any good use for it, what kind of a state it’s in.”

“Oh, I’ve been down there. You know, since that terrible creature was killed.” She had been?

Draco nodded at her. “The basilisk, yes.” He turned to Harry. “It’s probably useless to ask you this, but has anyone taken samples of the basilisk? Incredible potion supplies just lying in the bowels of the school.”

Suddenly reminded of Slughorn, Harry stared at Draco before finally shaking his head. "You said that you've been down there? What's it look like? Ron and Hermione went down there back in May."

Draco turned to him. "What? Without you? How? I thought only Parselmouths could enter the Chamber."

Harry shook his head. "Ron said that he pretended to speak it. Heard me enough, he could make some sounds like it."

"...Huh." Huh? That was all he had to say about that?

"I try not to go down there," Myrtle told him. "It's dark and dank. More than the pipes. And that monster is still there. And something else."

"Something else?" Shit, they had to go down there and check it out.

"Well? Go on." Fucking prick.

Feeling Draco's eyes piercing into his back, in  _ this bathroom, _ Harry was careful as he bent towards the faucet and stared hard at the snakes. They… almost reminded him of Nagini. " _ Open, _ " he said, and listening for it, he definitely heard himself hissing.

Harry stepped back as the sinks began to open down into the Chamber. "Bloody Merlin," he heard Draco breathe behind him.

Turning back to look at him, Harry gave him a nod. “Are you coming, or not?”

Draco seemed to huff, adjusting his robes. “‘Am I coming,’ he asks-  _ Yes, _ I’m coming.”

Alright, then. Harry led the way, stepping carefully on each step. The rockfall from the last time he could remember being in the Chamber wasn’t there anymore at the bottom.

✶✶✶

Looking up at a sudden light, It stared in wonder. Something was happening. Something so rarely happened! The most interesting thing that ever seemed to happen was the water that dripped down from the big stone thing sometimes. Two things were coming from the same way as the light, and It slithered over to get a closer look.

It wasn’t sure what they were, but It wasn’t sure about very many things. That was why it called itself It. That was what it knew. It was It. They held out things that made  _ more _ light, and It watched as they looked around It’s home. One of them, the smaller one, saw It and looked… Hm. Surprised? Yes. The thing looked  _ surprised. _ It moved in some way that it made sounds, but the thing didn’t make sounds that It could understand. The taller thing looked over and saw It too, and backed away, raising one of its things to its top.

It looked around itself, and behind itself. What was causing that? “ _ Hello? _ ” It looked back at the two things. It- That was sounds it understood! “ _ Hello… I’m Harry. _ ”

Harry. The smaller thing was Harry. “ _ Hello Harry, _ ” It said, doing its best to copy the Harry. “ _ I’m It. _ ”

Harry’s top — which It had to guess at this point was Harry’s head — tilted to one side, and it copied the motion. Harry wasn’t looking at It. “ _ It? Is that your name? _ ”

Name. What was a name? “ _ Name… Hm… No. Some of the things that It could see through gathered round and all said ‘come look at It!’ ‘It’s horrific!’ And they all looked at me. So I’m It. _ ”

Harry made more noises, but It couldn’t understand any of those noises. The taller thing made noises back at Harry. Hm. “ _ This is Draco. He can’t understand you. _ ”

“ _ Who’s He? _ ” Harry said the tall thing was Draco, but who was He? Whoever this He was, He couldn’t understand It.

“ _...Draco. He’s- How old are you? _ ”

Harry was asking It many things It didn’t know. It wasn’t sure it much liked that. “ _ I don’t know what an old is. _ ”

✶✶✶

Draco watched Harry in fascination, keeping his sight away from the small basilisk by using his hand to shield his eyes, and turning towards Harry completely. “What is it? There was two basilisks all along?”

Harry said another thing or two to it before kneeling down, looking back up at Draco. “I don’t think so. I think the basilisk —  _ the _ basilisk — somehow… Had eggs? Or whatever it is that basilisks have. I think this one’s just a baby.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “Oh, wonderful, it’s just a  _ baby _ killer snake, nothing to worry about.”

“It hasn’t even got a name. It said some of the ghosts found out he was here and told each other to look at it, so it’s gotten onto calling itself ‘It.’”

Glancing down to the thing, Draco was relieved that most of its attention was on Harry. “That’s… dreadful,” he finally said, looking towards the corpse of the basilisk that no doubt was the very same one Harry had defeated those years ago. “What do we do?”

Harry seemed surprised, looking up at Draco. “What do you mean, ‘what do we do?’ It’s a basilisk, even if it is a baby. It can kill us by looking at us.”

Draco crossed his arms over his chest. “Still. Apparently ‘It’ doesn’t know anything from anything. Isn’t there some kind of caretaker, or something, for basilisks that we can send it off to?”

There was silence in the Chamber, aside from ‘It’ hissing at Harry continually. Harry finally laughed, shaking his head at him. “I don’t think there’s some kind of basilisk babysitting service around, Draco.”

“Then that brings us back to the question of what do we do about it?”

“Yeah… Yeah, I guess it does.” Harry seemed to think, which Draco knew was a task that was incredibly difficult for him. “I mean, in theory, if we took away his ability to see, then he wouldn’t be able to kill anyone by looking at them.”

Scrunching his nose, Draco made a face. That sounded… incredibly distasteful. “You mean mutilate it?”

“Well, I don’t really see you suggesting anything else.” Harry turned back to the basilisk, lowering his gaze to the floor as he hissed. The basilisk seemed to watch before it slowly laid its head down on the floor. “I told him why it’s dangerous for him to look at us.”

Draco looked at him in disbelief. “‘Him?’ Don’t tell me you’re going to name it.”

Harry looked back up at him with that  _ stupid _ devilishly charming smirk. “I might. Why? What have you got against it? You were the one just saying how we should do something.”

“I didn’t mean  _ keep _ the bloody thing, I only meant that it should be safe somewhere  _ other than _ the school! There’s still the matter of the fact that if you two look at one another, even accidentally, you  _ will _ experience death yet again. Not that you probably won’t find a way to come back from  _ that, _ ” he huffed, shaking his head. This was utterly ridiculous. Harry  _ wanted _ to keep the bloody baby basilisk. The killer- He had been around that oaf Hagrid far too much, if this was what he thought was a good use of his savior skills.

Sighing, Harry rose to his feet. “Alright, alright, fine. I won’t decide one way or another on it right now. I’ll… I can ask McGonagall if there’s a way to save him. A way to take away that whole ‘death at first sight’ thing.”

Glancing to him, a hint of a smile finally tilted the corners of Draco’s lips up. “Finally, he actually takes a moment to think before he acts.”

“Ha ha. Come on,” Harry told him, nudging him gently and startling him into releasing his arms at his side. “McGonagall is gonna want a report back about this anyway. She  _ did _ want us to see what the state of the Chamber was. And home to a baby basilisk, I feel like, is a pretty significant state.”

“You know a word like significant?”

This time, Harry didn’t even dignify it with a response. He looked back in the direction of the basilisk and hissed.

✶✶✶

“So you see, Headmistress…” Harry resisted the urge to run a hand through his hair, or anything else nervous and fidgety. “That’s it. The long and short of it, really.”

McGonagall looked between Harry and Draco both. He didn’t understand how Draco did it. He looked like he was barely bothered, standing there in her office while they tried to advocate for the  _ not _ killing of a deadly baby monster. He knew of course that Draco was probably as nervous as he was, but the least the prat could do was  _ show it. _ “You wish… to save this beast. You wish for us to find a way to render its killing sight powerless so the creature can continue to live. Is that what I’m understanding from this?”

Draco was the one to nod at her. “Yes, Headmistress.” ...That was it? No trying to help their stance, or anything, just ‘yes ma’am’?

She looked at them both again, then looked down at her own paperwork with a sigh. “You both know, of course, that if anyone at the Ministry were to get wind of this before we found a way to achieve this, they would send in their men without a hesitant thought and slaughter the thing.”

“Yes, Headmistress,” Draco said again with another nod. “We understand perfectly.”

She seemed to think it all over for a minute. “Well then. I suppose we’d ought to ask our professors if they know of any such way that this can be achieved. I believe asking Professor Flitwick first would do us a world of good, he’d be the first to know of any kind of charm, I believe.”

Harry could hardly believe his ears, and his head shot up to look at her properly. “So then- You agree? You want to help him?”

“Mr. Potter, I would think that after all this time, you would know that I have always been against the senseless murder of beings whom have not proven deserving of such a fate.”

Draco nodded again. “Yes, ma’am.”

She muttered to herself about asking Hagrid a few things, dietary restrictions before she nodded. “I’ll speak to Filius shortly. I suggest that the two of you keep this under wraps.” She gave them both a stern look. “Should any students outside of Misters Zabini and Weasley, or Misses Granger and Parkinson hear about any of this that you’ve found out, I would be most displeased, gentleman.”

“Understood.”

Harry was quick to bob his head. “Crystal clear, ma’am.”

McGonagall looked at them before she gave a single nod. “Very well, then. I will alert you if anything is found. Dismissed, the both of you.”

✶✶✶

“So then,” Draco told the two of them. “That’s the long and short of it.”

“I can’t believe you,” Blaise said, shaking his head and covering his face with a hand. “A basilisk. A  _ baby basilisk. _ ”

Pansy cooed, tilting her head, “I think it’s sweet. You and Saint Potter, raising a bouncing baby basilisk together. I assume, of course, that what with the whole Parseltongue thing, he gets primary custody.”

Draco rolled his eyes at her. “I swear. Pansy, you know it’s not going to be anything like that. If anything, the thing will probably get handed over to Hagrid, and he’ll keep it around just like he kept that bloody bird, and that damned dog.”

“You didn’t used to hate that dog so much, you know.”

He shot her a deadly glare. “Enough.” The look, paired with the bitten word, were enough for Pansy to drop the topic.

“Fine, fine. How was your detention with him, then?”

Rolling his shoulders, Draco sighed. “It was about as well as you could have expected it to be, Pansy, I don’t know what you want me to tell you.”

Across from him, Blaise snorted as he opened his book again. “She wants you to tell her that you and Potter had some miraculous breakthrough, and you spent the majority of the ‘detention’ on the floor of Myrtle’s bathroom snogging the life out of each other.”

Draco’s head whipped to Blaise as he felt a flush rise across his neck. “ _ Blaiziel! _ ”

“Oh please, Draco, you’re always so dramatic, and you know I’m only telling the truth.”

Pansy nodded with an uncaring shrug. “He’s right, you know. That was exactly what I was hoping you would say.” That was it. That was all there was to it. His friends were traitors. This was why he was never meant to have proper ‘friends.’ He needed to downgrade them to allies immediately.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long before Draco was receiving a note at breakfast from the Headmistress.

_ Misters Potter and Malfoy, _

_ I would like the both of you to meet me after your last class of the day at the entrance of the second floor women’s restroom. I believe we’ve been able to find a method to make everyone happy. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Headmistress McGonagall _

Draco lifted his head to look at Harry down the eighth year’s table. Harry nodded to him before tucking the note away. It surprised Draco, admittedly. He didn’t know that Harry had ‘subtle’ and ‘discreet’ in him.

It felt as though their classes  _ dragged _ before he and Harry finally met just outside the restrooms, with the Headmistress already waiting for them. She nodded and turned, sweeping inside the restroom. “Professor Flitwick has informed me of precisely which spell will do what we hope. I’ve told Madam Pomfrey to prepare a Restorative Draught, as according to Hagrid, the gaze of a young basilisk should be less effective than that of an adult.”

Draco nodded along. Everything she was saying made sense. He wasn’t quite sure why he was there. Harry leaned over the sink and nodded to himself, once again hissing to open the way. Draco shuddered at the sound. It was smooth, yet forceful, and  _ delicious- _ Calm, Draco, this was a serious matter.

The three of them made their way down the steps and to the Chamber. It would have been a silent journey, until Harry finally asked, “Headmistress… You’re not going to  _ blind _ him, are you?”

Draco looked to her as well, and felt something in him relax when he saw the beginnings of a smile across her face. “No, Mr. Potter, I intend not to. This is very similar to Cursebreaking, I had to ask our Professor Lupin to speak with Professor Flitwick to be certain about it.”

Thinking about it, Draco finally nodded. “You’re going to find the piece of magic that allows his gaze to be fatal, and you’re going to unravel that piece.”

“Precisely, Mr. Malfoy. Five points to Slytherin.”

“Wha- But-!” Draco smirked as Harry looked gobsmacked. “But we’re not in our houses-!”

“No? My mistake.” When they reached the Chamber, the Headmistress’ gaze flickered from one end to the other. “Now, where is the creature, Mr. Potter?”

Harry looked around the Chamber, hissing more of those gorgeous sounds, and when Draco saw it start to slither its way over, he immediately rose up a hand to the level of his eye. “Avert your eyes, please, gentleman, I’d prefer us not to have any mishaps.”

“It’s alright, Headmistress, he knows it’s bad if he looks at us right now. I’m just explaining to him what we’re going to do.”

“Very well, Mr. Potter. At your ready, then.”

There seemed to be a little more back and forth conversation between the two before Draco saw Harry finally nod. “Alright. He’s ready.”

“Very well.”

It  _ ate _ at him, that he couldn’t watch the magic being performed. He was certain it would have been a sight. But finally, the Headmistress spoke, “Alright. That should do it.”

“Guess I’ll be the guinea pig,” Harry said, kneeling down to the basilisk and speaking to it. Draco watched as it seemed Harry and the basilisk made eye contact, and… And nothing. He was still perfectly in motion.

Then, the basilisk did something…  _ odd. _ It looked up at Draco, and it slithered over towards  _ Draco- _ Leg. It was- It was  _ crawling up his leg-! _ Before he could scream or curse the thing, Harry was laughing. “He said he likes your hair.”

Draco shuddered as ‘he’ finally made his way up to rest around his shoulders. “Oh. Goodie.”

“Very good. Now, Mr. Potter, I do have to ask, what  _ are _ your plans? Do you intend for this creature to remain within the Chamber? Or perhaps Hagrid will care for it?”

Harry gave her that grin of his, that one that was all boyish, and full of charm, and oh. Oh no. “Actually, ma’am… I was kinda hoping to keep him. I mean, I know I already have Hedwig, but, well… I think it might be the best for everyone.”

McGonagall looked at Harry, then at the basilisk, then at  _ Draco. _ “And do you agree with this plan, Mr. Malfoy? As I recall it, you were just as combative about making sure the basilisk remained unharmed.”

Staring at her, Draco finally gave a shake of his head. “I… see no problem with that plan, Headmistress.”

McGonagall nodded to the both of them. “Very well, then. Though, Mr. Potter, it appears you may have a hard time separating that beast from Mr. Malfoy. It seems to have rather latched on.”

Harry walked over towards Draco, facing him head on. He spoke in Parseltongue once more, Draco doing everything in his power to suppress his shivers as the basilisk hissed back. Finally, Draco saw Harry smirk. “Salazar. His name is Salazar.”

Draco stared at him in… wonder? Disbelief? How could he have come up with that on his own and been alright with it? “His name is Salazar?”

“It is. And he likes it, too.” Harry held a hand out, very nearly touching Draco’s shoulder, and Salazar moved across his shoulders and began to twine himself around Harry’s arm. “We’d better get him up to the Common Room.”

“We?”

“Yeah, we. He said he wanted you to stick close.” Oh. Well, that was… Huh.

Maybe Pansy hadn’t been so far off.


End file.
